20 classic albums you won’t believe turn 20 in 2014

It was rap, and it rocked—and thank God it wasn’t rap-rock. We miss you every day, Adam Yauch, but thanks for giving us this record before you left.

RANCIDLet’s GoRELEASED: June 14, 1994

Part three of punk’s complete and utter takeover of 1994. (Parts four and five are right around the corner, too)

ELLIOTT SMITHRoman CandleRELEASED: July 14, 1994

The very first solo album from the former Heatmiser frontman (recorded while he was still in the band) is fragile, delicate and everything we’d all come to love about Elliott Smith for the following nine years, until his untimely, tragic death in 2003.

NOFXPunk In DrublicRELEASED: July 19, 1994

Part four of punk’s complete and utter takeover of 1994—and by far the funniest one, too. “Ah hell, he’s even more punk than me!”

BAD RELIGIONStranger Than FictionRELEASED: August 30, 1994

Part five of punk’s complete and utter takeover of 1994—and the only one of ’em to land on the cover of AP the same year.

R.E.M.MonsterRELEASED: September 27, 1994

Unfairly relegated to the cut-out bins of record stores across America, R.E.M.’s “big, dumb rock record” was definitely big but not nearly as dumb as critics made it out to be. A lot of these glam-rock tracks still hold up, and the best part is if you ever can’t find your copy of it, you can go to Goodwill and probably get one for a quarter.